State v. Wacker

344 P.2d 1004, 86 Ariz. 247, 1959 Ariz. LEXIS 165
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 7, 1959
Docket1144
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 344 P.2d 1004 (State v. Wacker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Wacker, 344 P.2d 1004, 86 Ariz. 247, 1959 Ariz. LEXIS 165 (Ark. 1959).

Opinion

STRUCKMEYER, Justice.

Ray Waclcer was informed against by the county attorney of Pinal County, Arizona, for wilfully failing to comply with the provisions of Amended Crop Regulation No. 7 of the Arizona Commission of Agriculture and Horticulture, a regulation designed to suppress and eradicate an insect pest known as the Pink Bollworm of Cotton. The defendant was specifically charged with failing after harvest to have crop remnants remaining in his cotton field shredded, chopped or cut and plowed under to the depth of four inches or more, a misdemeanor. On motion to quash the information, the trial court certified certain questions to this court, of which those deemed necessary to a proper resolution of the motion will be considered.

*249 Question No. I
“Is the delegation of Tower and Authority’ as set forth in Sec. 3-103 of Title 3, Chapter 1, of the Agricultural Administration Act, A.R.S., 1956, unconstitutional as being a delegation of legislative power to an administrative agency, without a statement of policy, guides, limitations or restraint ?”

This question is directed to subsection 2, A.R.S. § 3-103, which provides:

“The commission may * * * (2) Make and enforce all rules, regulations and orders necessary to * * * prevent introduction of a crop pest or disease into the state, and to prevent propagation or dissemination of a crop pest or disease from one locality to another within this state, and to control, eradicate or to suppress a crop pest or disease.”

The question of proper standards to restrict the sphere of action of administrative agencies has twice been extensively considered in recent decisions of this court, with opposing results. In State v. Marana Plantations, 75 Ariz. 111, 252 P.2d 87, 90, we held invalid a statute which permitted the State Board of Health to enact rules to “regulate sanitation and sanitary practices in the interests of public health” and to “protect and promote the public health and prevent disability and mortality” as being a complete delegation of legislative power. The statute neither designated a specific evil toward which it was directed nor defined the course of conduct which was to be followed by the administrative agency. No determination of fact was required upon which the law was dependent for its operation prior to adoption of regulatory measures. No attempt was made to limit the area within which the Board’s power was to operate. We further said:

“ * * * It may safely be said that a statute which gives unlimited regulatory power to a commission, board or agency with no prescribed restraints nor criterion nor guide to its action offends the Constitution as a delegation of legislative power. The board must be corralled in some reasonable degree and must not be permitted to range at large and determine for itself the conditions under which a law should exist and pass the law it thinks appropriate.” 75 Ariz. 111, 252 P.2d 87, 89.

On the other hand, in Southwest Engineering Co. v. Ernst, 79 Ariz. 403, 291 P. 2d 764, we upheld the constitutionality of those sections of the groundwater code which required, upon a finding by the State Land Commissioner of a critical groundwater condition, a declaration of a critical groundwater area and then the drilling of further irrigation wells was by operation of law forbidden. We held that the legislature *250 might condition the operation of a statute upon an administrative finding of an ultimate fact as long as an adequate guide for determining that fact was provided.

In the instant case, the Act in question is more nearly comparable to the Ernst case. The legislature has defined by A.R.S. § 3-201, crop diseases and crop pests:

“ * * * 2. ‘Crop diseases’ includes all fungus, bacteria, virus or other organism of any kind and any unknown cause which is or may be found to be injurious, or likely to be or to become injurious to any domesticated or cultivated plant, or to the product of any such plant.
“3. ‘Crop pests’ includes all insects, mites, spiders and other animal organisms found injurious, or likely to become injurious, to any domesticated, cultivated, native or wild plant, or to the product of any such plant.”

It thus becomes the duty of the Commission to make and enforce rules, regulations and orders necessary to prevent the introduction, propagation or dissemination and to control, eradicate or suppress only those pests and diseases which are found to be injurious or likely to become injurious to plants or their products.

A.R.S. §§ 3-207 and- 3-208 further circumscribe the actions of the Commission and the State Entomologist in that the State Entomologist, prior to calling a hearing before the Commission, must believe-that “ * * * a pest or disease * * *"• menaces or threatens serious injury to the' horticultural or agricultural industry of this, state * * * ” and the Commission must, find that such a menace exists. The Criterion, guide or standard upon which the law is to operate is the determination that a. crop disease or crop pest is not only injurious to plants and their products, but' that the disease or pest is such as to-menace or threaten serious injury to the: horticultural or agricultural industries.

A further question concerns the sufficiency of the standard to legally circumscribe the regulation-making power of the* Commission. We said in Haggard v. Industrial Commission, 71 Ariz. 91, 223 P.2d 915, that the extent and character of the.rules and regulations authorized to be-adopted by the legislature must be fixed ini accordance with common sense and the inherent necessities of governmental coordination. We also said in the Ernst case,, supra, 291 P.2d at page 775, that it is not. necessary for the legislature to lay down in: advance an exact mathematical formula, to which the administrative agency must adhere, for circumstances may vary which would serve to defeat the purpose of the-legislative enactment.

In the Maraña case, the legislative enactment required only that the rules and’ regulations of the State Board of Health bepromotive of public health. Here, by con *251 trast, subsection 2, A.R.S. § 3-103, supra, requires that the rules and regulations must be such as are necessary to prevent the introduction of a crop pest or disease in the state and to prevent propagation or dissemination from one locality to another. The governing standard established by the legislature is that of necessity.

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Bluebook (online)
344 P.2d 1004, 86 Ariz. 247, 1959 Ariz. LEXIS 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wacker-ariz-1959.